My thought as well when I read that article earlier today at Expecting Rain.

Seems like the writer went in with a story angle and looked for people to confirm it.

A short while ago, Hibbing High had their 50th graduation reunion and a British journalist went there to see if Bob would turn up and to get comments about him from his classmates. The comments weren't negative.

I've actually met a couple of people from Hibbing here in Norway in connection with work. Of course I asked about Bob. A young college student said that most people felt that he rejected Hibbing and they should reject him. The other was older than Bob (this was a few years back), and was a respectable member of the community. He was pleased that Hibbing was getting attention because of Bob.

Every generation reveres the music of their youth, but us boomers are unique in our level of narcissism. Even Dylan admits his music had little meaning and that people would make it up for themselves. If there is genius there, it is in us, cause we are more special than everyone else.

Nothing wrong with getting lucky or living well, but let's recognize that a man with a talent for putting words and tunes together, used to be someone who begged for handouts going from village to village.

Or perhaps Dylan just created his own style. There's nothing wrong or inauthentic about that. Every generation talks differently than their parents. Every person has their own little quirks. And when you're talking about a performer trying to set himself apart, those trends naturally get amplified.

I stopped reading at this schmuck's assertion that there were Yiddish miners. Yiddish sellers of candles to put in the miner's helmets, that I can believe. But Yiddish miners? Not even the schlemiels or the schlimazls.

bagoh20...A small point to your insightful comment, but Dylan had few fans in the 1960s and no one who was a fan liked his odd singing voice then. They liked his Folk Song repertoire, but dumped him 4 years later when he went electric. He really was only christened a "genius" when his lyrics were re-listened to 30 years later, and again his singing voice was never a part of this new attraction. People need to take him for what his value is to them today, and forgive him for ever having been a performer during the 1960s.

I really love you babyI love what you've gotLet's get together, we canGet hotNo more tomorrow, babyTime is todayGirl, I can make you feelOkayNo place for hidin' babyNo place to runYou pull the trigger of myLove gun, love gunLove gun, love gun

Dylan's music is banal: the voice that sounds as though it's coming from the throat of a guy with severe adenoid trouble, the uninteresting and childish harmonica licks with their falling inflection at the end of *every* phrase, the robotic head turn at the end of *every* phrase, the mindless vocal slide at the end of *every* phrase, the narcissistic lyrics that were frequently just doggerel . . .

Long ago when I was an undergraduate music major (at UW-M!) we used to call people like Dylan "a Miles Davis without ideas - bad tone, bad technique, nobody home in there."